We have a patient who brought in an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper filled out front and back, handwritten full of allergies. There were funny duplications like Darvocet and propoxyphene and an entire host of meds that are no longer commercially available.

We inputted all that our computer system would allow and a giant pop-up note to always include inquiring about allergies before actually giving her any meds.

Of course, we have to frequently call MDs to triple check. Poor docs. I'm sure they hate to hear from us.

My favorite allergy that I am presented with while working in a pharmacy is still "I am allergic to generics" which makes me want to roll my eyes and give people a stern lecture as to what the actual differences are between a brand and generic medication are.

but then logic takes over and makes me realize that I can't/don't have the time to give said lecture, and just mark peoples files as "brand only"

although it makes me feel better about myself when I turn around to said generic allergic person with a drug that isn't covered by there insurance and costs more than 100 dollars. Makes me feel all warm inside!

My husband's grandmother showed me her big fat list of all the medications she was allergic to. My husband's grandfather said that any time she got a side effect from a medicine, she called it an allergy. They kept this list to take any time they saw a medical provider so nobody would offer any of these things to her.

Her list of food allergies grew by the year, too. Mostly a food got on the list if it made her gassy. It was interesting to go to a restauraunt with her and watch her interrogate the waiters about what was in the food that she was allergic to.

I guess it's a marginally better answer than, "I don't know if I'm allergic to anything because I haven't taken a lot of medicine, because I don't like taking pills, so I try to avoid them. So I might be allergic to something, and I just don't know it yet."

btw, your whole family's so awesome, I see where Marie gets it from now.

Welcome to my whining!

This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate.

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